WiiU clockspeeds found by marcan (Wii hacker)

[Feels Good Man]

Marcan is a well known Wii hacker (if you didn't know) so the information is very unlikely to be baseless speculation.

Wii U codenames worth knowing: system Cafe, CPU Espresso, GPU/SoC/etc. Latte, ARM secure processor Starbuck (we made that one up).

1.243125GHz, exactly. 3 PowerPC 750 type cores (similar to Wii's Broadway, but more cache).

GPU core at 549.999755MHz.

we're calling the WiiU security processor the Starbuck (vs. Starlet on Wii). And it seems to be about equally vulnerable, too

sorry, I'd rather not talk about how I got that yet. It doesn't involve leaks, it involves Wii U hacks

https://twitter.com/marcan42

I don't know too much about hardware so I won't comment though it does seem low.

 

[Valwin]

seems legit

 

[McHaggis]

Hacking news is coming pretty thick and fast for the Wii U. Things are looking up.

 

[Lanlan]

Cool. How does this compare to stuff like desktop PCs, taking into account the fact that it's different architecture? I know GHZ doesn't mean everything, but do these numbers tell us any good info?

 

[Foxi4]

Clock speeds are not a good representation of horse power - everything depends on how much of a boost the cache provides, how polished is the architecture and how much the GPGPU capabilities will be able to take the toll off the CPU itself. That, and remember that it's a tripple-core, so the communication between them also plays a factor, and that's improved via eDRAM.

 

[Rydian]

Specu...
Specu...!
SPECU...!
SPECULATION, HO!

PowerPC 750CL: https://www-01.ibm.com/chips/techlib/techlib.nsf/products/PowerPC_750CL_Microprocessor
According to wikipedia, this is the closest public match to what the Wii has, with the Wii's clocked at 729Mhz.

PowerPC 750: https://www-01.ibm.com/chips/techlib/techlib.nsf/products/PowerPC_750_Microprocessor
According to Marcan, this is the architecture used in the Wii U, three cores, clocked at 1.25Ghz... ? No, this itself can't be right.

Looking at the date of the base 750 (1997 introduction which is multiple years before the Wii's 750CL was developed), I highly doubt that "PowerPC 750" is the exact model.

He's most likely just stating that the CPU is within the 750 family... but I don't know enough to guess if it's another modification to the 750CL or whatever.
However, it's likely almost the same in performance per-clock!

Given that the architecture's the same and we know the clock rate and junk, we can now make educated guesses to how much more powerful the Wii U is compared to the Wii. Now, this is just a rough guess, and Marcan DID say that the Wii U's CPU has more cache. If this is something like L1 or L2 cache (and not something with a lot more latency) then this would help a lot, as it's been shown that more L1 and L2 cache is actually a nice performance improvement. Given the simplicity of the 750 I doubt this is something like shared L3 cache AMD pulled off...

The Wii U's using the same base architecture at a ~72% clock boost, with more low-latency cache and three more cores. The CPU, in my guess, is about 4-5 times as powerful as the Wii's at best.

People, please remember that it's primarily the GPU that's responsible for graphics. Just figured I needed to post that...


EDIT: HAHA MATH FAIL. Fixed. Also note that when running single-core programs, it wouldn't be nearly that much of an improvement.

 

[Snailface]

"it involves Wii U hacks"
"we're calling the WiiU security processor the Starbuck (vs. Starlet on Wii). And it seems to be about equally vulnerable"

This is bigger news than clock speed imo.
OP's name is oddly appropriate for this thread.

 

[Gahars]

And here comes another round of spec-U-lation/specsulation (take your pick).

Still, it definitely sounds like hacks for the Wii U are no longer a question of if, but when.

 

[the_randomizer]

He found this out, how?

 

[Taleweaver]

Nice to hear. Unfortunate, due to not keeping up with computer development, I have pretty much no idea of whether this is good or not.


In a cynical way, here's the more important question:

Are these specs good enough to make people who cry about it being inferior to MicroSony's stuff shut up?


Not sure what to make of the remark of not wanting to say how he found it out. With statements like that, I'm actually more inclined to think they too a wiiU apart and did some investigating on the parts themselves than that they somehow hacked into the thing enough to run a benchmark.

 

[McHaggis]

He found this out, how?

sorry, I'd rather not talk about how I got that yet. It doesn't involve leaks, it involves Wii U hacks

Are these specs good enough to make people who cry about it being inferior to MicroSony's stuff shut up?

You can't really draw a direct comparison. Clock speed isn't comparable across different chips and architecture.

 

[the_randomizer]

You can't really draw a direct comparison. Clock speed isn't comparable across different chips and architecture.

Fair enough

 

[Foxi4]

Like I said earlier, clock speeds alone are relatively easy to measure, but that and the architecture are not enough to determine the total horse power. There are too many variables in the equation, such as cache and its implementation, communication between cores, embedded memory, its type, speed and implementation and all the other junk you can jam on the silicone to improve its performance. Before the chip is x-rayed, successfuly decapped etc. we may only draw rough estimates that have little to do with facts.

 

[Forstride]

And not a single fuck was given. "News" about system specs for anything should be banned, like sales figures. All it does is cause arguments and bring out the elitism in people.

 

[Qtis]

And not a single fuck was given. "News" about system specs for anything should be banned, like sales figures. All it does is cause arguments and bring out the elitism in people.

Considering Nintendo hasn't released anything official about it, it's news indeed. Not maybe to you, but someone else may find it interesting. Also as GBAtemp is mainly about consoles (and in many way pro-modding) I don't see how this doesn't fit the category. Sales figures on the other hand are a completely different matter and are easily manipulated into saying what you want: "LOL THE IPHONE IS NOT SELLING ANYMORE LOL!" and then we see the new phone released and people buying it like there is no tomorrow.

OT: This doesn't mean much to me in the sense that I won't probably get anything out of it. On the other hand the prospect of having a modified console is interesting if nothing else.

 

[MrDiesel]

The fact that the security processor is almost equally vulnerable (as the Wii's), makes this post more interesting, than the fact the WiiU has a certain clock speed...

 

[Hyro-Sama]

So when can we expect to begin playing backups on the Wii U?

That's all anyone really cares about.

 

[DinohScene]

And not a single fuck was given. "News" about system specs for anything should be banned, like sales figures. All it does is cause arguments and bring out the elitism in people.

So you're saying that any news in hacking progress should be banned?

 

[Feels Good Man]

And not a single fuck was given. "News" about system specs for anything should be banned, like sales figures. All it does is cause arguments and bring out the elitism in people.

Yes, let's not encourage discussion among users unless it's positive news. Believe it or not but not all discussion is calm and us getting along. That's just anti-discussion and we're here to debate and argue with each other to prove each other wrong. That's how message boards survive

 

[dicamarques]

It would be so weird that the Wii U would be hacked before the 3DS :S But well thats progress
Edit: Oh you ninty keeping the wii u unsecure just like the wii